Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-24
A SENSATIONAL INVESTIGATION.
[san Francisco News Letter. August 18th. ]


When Congress agreed TO the appoint
ment of a travelling Railroad Commission
at $3.50 month and all expenses paid, the
matter was not very seriously considered !;
it was treated in light and trifling way !;
was thought to be a nice junketing trip
for some jolly good fellows, and il was on
the list as one of the logs to be rolled, and
it was rolled accordingly. That is how we
came by Messrs Pattison, Anderson and
Littier, who are engaged in this city just
now in running kind of circus, in which
they appear as triumvirate of clowns.
They are supported by weak stock conn.,
pany consisting of couple of stenograph-
ers, bailif and several clerks, but they
themselves are the principal performers.
The subject of their jokes, the personali-
ties they have INDUCED in, the funny con-
illusions at which they have arrived, will
be reported to Congress; the paper on
which these things are written will in due
time be consigned to the waste basket, the
people and Congress will forget that any,
thing since the days of Credit Mobilier was
written or reported about the Pacific rail-
roads, thousands will cross the continent
on those roads, thank God for their con-
struction, enjoy California, settle in it if
they can and only return home if they
must, and the world will go on just as if
Messrs. Anderson, Pattison and Littler
t,a1 I'd
day we are realizing the truth that West
ward the star of empire takes its way"
That truth is sweeping all before it. The
march is hitherward. Men have no time
to stop and inquire whether or not those
who lereled the mountains, bridged the
valleys and spanned the continent with a
road of iron. made a dollar or two more
than the envious and lean kind of the
period would have liked to have seen them
make. 1t will be deemed sufficient to
know, and the knowledge will be source
of pleasure all round, that those who
opened up prosperity to the most healthful,
the most fertile and the most habitable
portion of America, participated them
selves in that prosperity The procession
will go on, and those who do not keep step
in il will get left or get hurt Messrs, An
derson, Patterson and Littler will be for
gotten after they have done service as a
nine days wonder. They may be excellent
old women in the matter of trunding mons
in puddle Of their own making, but thew
will prove nowhere against the rising tide
of prosperity which the railroads have pro-
duced, and which to- day are swelling up
from both the Atlantic and Pacific shores.
The single, slender and only tangible
thread upon which the excuse for Messrs.
Anderson, Pattison and Littler's appoint
ment was founded, was thatit might posi-
bly, be well to inquire if the Pacific rail-
roads at the appointed time were likely to
be able to protect the Government in the
guarantees ii had given in their behalf.
Just that, and nothing more. The railroads
cheerfuliy welcomed such an INQUIRY, and
placed their Directors their officers and
their books at the disposal of the Commits
sion, although there was no law to compel
them to do so. That courtesy has been
taken advantage of to inquire into all sorts
OF matters that are not germane to the es-
sential point to be determined. namely ::
whether the roads can fulfill their final oh
legations to the Government. What are
those obligations? Since the opening of
the roads. in 1869, one-half of the earnings
of the roads for carrying troops, mails, etc,
have been reserved by the Government for
the payment of bonds, and since the pas
sage of the Thurman Act no less than 25
per cent. of the net earnings have been re-
served for the same purpose. Thirty years
have yet to run before those obligations
finally accrue. 1t is possible that within
that time the services rendered will equal
the obligations incurred, to say nothing of
the railroads then capacity to pay in full
Who shall to-day set bounds to that capaci-
ty? Who shall declare what mighty re-
suits thirty years will bring forth Within
that time the nation will have almost
trebled its population, the Pacific coast will
have quintupled its products, and the debt
of the railroads will appear a mere bag
atelle.
1t is said that the railroads should econo-
mize, put into a sinking fund every dime
of their earnings, ignore the throb of en-
terprise and the pulse of time; in which
case we should to-day have only the origi-
nal Central Pacific Railroad, and who shall
say-who in truth dare say that such a
condition OF affairs would have given the
Government better a safer, or a surer
guarantee for its final protection than the
SAAbCi NulC nave tapped
every valley in the State, annexed the adj
joining States and Territories for CONNER
cial purposes, conquered Mexico, and rem
dered Canada an ally? To talk of these
great results in the same breath with the
puny personalities of Messrs. Pattison. An
derson and Llttler, is to commit sacrilege
upon thought, an assault upon progress.
and to belittle the great future of the rail
roads and of the country. The investiga-
tors of to-day may serve Wall streets pur-
poses of the hour; they may depress stocks;
they may harass and annoy their superiors
by their bIief authority, and, for political
purposes, they may even strive to iniure
one who is near and dear to the jewellers
on the Pacific coast, but in that they will
fail as they will in all else. The day of
railroad antagonism is over. Now and
henceforth our interests lie with the men
who have developed and are still develop
ing this glorious section of the land we
live in.